The blog has been uncharacteristically
quiet for the last couple of months. Part of the reason is that
we've been sitting still in Beaufort, SC and there
hasn't been much to talk about. But the real reason is that our
writing energies have been going elsewhere...to new books.
It's an odd thing that each of us were writing new books separately and yet, somehow, managed to finish them
both at the same time. As any of you who have written anything of any
length know, those last few weeks before release are a flurry of edits
and re-reads to the point that you have difficulty even focusing on
the words. With each edit you think you're done, only to have a
proofreader find yet another typo or formatting mistake.
At long last, though, both are finished. And that brought up a whole new issue – how to release two such different books at the
same time.
The longer I mused, the more I realized
that the situation embodied our relationship. One of the reasons we
have succeeded in cruising for so long is that we get along really
well. We are a melded unit of nearly fifty years, with the kind of
relationship that allows complex thoughts to pass between us with
just a glance and a smile. Though we share that kind of bond, we also
allow each other space to be independent characters, are happy in
our own skins, and content to sit, sometimes for days, in total
silence in each other's company. The new books are our individual
reflections on two different subjects, reflections of two different
individuals who happen to share a small boat as a living space.
Tj's is a short little book reflecting on the ways in which learning how to play a ukulele at age 63 changed his perception of the world
around him. The uke was gifted to him by four of our grand kids
nearly a year ago, and the book was birthed by far-ranging
philosophical discussions between Tj and our eldest daughter about those changes. She – the poet writer – encouraged him to write them down,
and Learning From a Uke – a small book for a small instrument
was born. It's a short little book, thought-provoking and honest,
that touches a bit on the difficulties of aging gracefully and the
joys of learning something new at any
age. It's one you can pick up over and over, each time finding something new.
My
book came about because I was cleaning out and sorting the thousands
of photos in my computer pictures folder the day after having another
of the discussions we often have with new cruisers about how to get
started. As I browsed through the photos, remembering those years of
preparation prior to embarking on this adventure, many of them
reminded me how easy it was to get totally wrapped up in the “how”
of accomplishing it, and to lose sight of why I was doing it in the
first place. I began to gather those in a folder and to write a short
bit about each one. Being a writer, I wanted to capture in words the
essence of this lifestyle that the photos captured so well. The
Essence is a collection of those
photos and vignettes that touch on what it means to me to live this
life with the sea.
Both books are
available in Kindle and print format; the print formats make for
great holiday gifts. If you do read them, please leave a review on
Amazon. It can't be emphasized enough how important reviews are to
self-published writers. We also love to hear from our readers, so
feedback is greatly appreciated – it's the way we learn to write
better, and learning something new to improve yourself is always a
welcome thing.
We hope that you
take from them as much as they have given us in the writing of them.
